So, the second doofus mistake I avoided was resisting temptation
to go home a way I knew ... down through Elk Creek, camp
at Fouts Springs and make my way home down Bear Valley
to Knoxville Road to Napa, Hwy 35 to Hwy 101 ...
Would have been silly, since I know that way ...
Instead, I got blocked by snow, and then got obsessed
to find a campsite up on Red Mountain ...
The next morning I saw a sign on Wild Mad Road that said
Ruth - 35 Miles
and thought to myself, well, I'll go to Ruth
and then take TWT's recommended roads off Alderpoint Road ...
Glad I had enough sense to take
TWT's sound route advice,
and take some new roads home ...
they were beautiful roads, and it was a beautiful day ...
Here's what Wikipedia has to say about Bell Springs Road:
“Bell Springs Road, 28 miles of
steep narrow unpaved mountain road,
was originally called Mail Ridge,
and was the only through road connecting
Mendocino County and
Humboldt County
before Highway 101 was built.”
Hard to imagine that this now remote, dirt,
county-byway was once the main link to
Humboldt County until Hwy 101 was built …
arty
Bell Springs Road passes by Blue Rock ...
Here is what Stephen Powers had to say about
Blue Rock and the area around it in his book
“The Northern California Indians”
written in 1872:
“The Ki Pomos dwell on the extreme headwaters
of South Fork, ranging eastward to Eel River,
westward to the ocean, and northward to the Castel Pomos.
"With the latter they were ever jangling,
and from the manner in which Indian trails
are constructed, their battles generally
raged on the hill-tops.
"On the vast, wind-swept, and almost naked hogback
between the two forks of Eel River, some thirty miles
or more north of Cahto (now called Laytonville on Hwy 101),
looming largely up from the broad, grassy back of the mountain,
is the majestic, rugged, isolated bowlder called Blue Rock.
"A few miles still further north there is an
enormous section of this mountain-chain,
almost entirely covered with evergreen bushes,
whence its name, Big Chamise.
"Between these two points, and more especially
about the base of the savage old monster,
Blue Rock—a most grim, lonesome, and desolate summit,
cloud-haunted as with ghosts — is one of the most
famous ancient battle-grounds of California,
where
Indian-blood
has
been
poured
out
like
water,
and where the ground is yet strewed with
flint arrowheads and spear-points.
"But the bones of the warriors who
perished
on this fatal field are no longer visible,
having been doubtless consumed
on the
funeral pyre,
and sacredly carried home for interment.”
" ... poured out like water ..."
So, there you go ...
TWT counts on the
fingers of two hands
the exact day when her
brand new rear tire
will be worn out,
and she can point to
a map at roads you've never
heard of that you
should
ride ...
Thanks for letting
me tag along ...
see you around
the campfire,
-- SFMCjohn
